The Future Past
by L0NEV0ID
Summary: Set in the dark world of the "Future Past" DLC for Awakening, the story follows the children characters of the game as they fight the forces of the Fell Dragon which have conquered most of the land. Rated M for future violent and suggestive content. Please R&R, its a first go at writing and any input is greatly appreciated! :D
1. Chapter 1

It had hit far too fast for anyone to stop it. The Fell Dragon made his move, and now Ylisse, as well as the rest of the world, was going to suffer. When the Exalt had been killed in battle, many lost all sense of hope. But the princess would have none of that. Lucina knew that giving up would be an insult to her parents' sacrifices. And so, Inigo, along with the other ten members of the Shepards followed Lucina and fought on against Grima's oppression. Fighting off Grima meant performing the Awakening Ritual, and that was no easy task. The Five Gemstones, items needed to perform the ritual, were spread out across Ylisse and would be difficult to locate and retrieve. Yet the group was set on relieving the world of the darkness, and would go to great lengths to succeed. That is how Inigo found himself stealthily scouting the hills just south of the Longfort. These scouting trips had proven to be a tedious affair, granting little to no success in the search for the Gemstones, but were the only way for the small band of heroes to acquire any knowledge of the land. The Risen were everywhere, meaning these scouting trips would have to be done in pairs.

"Watch it!"

Inigo dropped his train of thought and stopped just in time to avoid crashing into his scouting partner. Severa was looking right at him, scowling.

"Sorry" he whispered back.

"There's a whole muster of them down in that clearing. I bet Sable or Argent is down there."

She focused her attention on the cluster of Risen in the clearing below. She furrowed her brow and began to make notes in her mind. Inigo never knew what she could be thinking whenever she did this. But whatever it was she did, she always got detailed news back to the camp, and so he let her be. Strategy had never come naturally to the young hero, so he often drifted off into daydreams whenever Severa was concentrating. As the days went by in this gloomy world, Inigo had found himself watching Severa more and more often as she worked. She would work her hands through her long red hair as she thought, and sometimes she would get so concentrated she'd unknowingly start sucking on the ends of her hair, prompting Inigo to chuckle and get a blush out of her.

"We should go back to camp now. There's no way we can fight an army on our own."

Inigo nodded in response, trying to act like he hadn't been watching her that whole time, and got up quietly to start the long road back to camp.

Their treks through the woods would always be quiet affairs, so as not to alarm any Risen. Severa didn't seem to mind the quiet, she rarely spoke at all, and when she did, it was straight to the point. Inigo didn't mind that, in fact he liked how she could be so frank with everything, but he hated not being able to speak for long periods of time. After an hour of quietly following Severa through the thick woods, Inigo finally decided he would take a risk.

"Hey Severa, I…"

"Hush!" she stammered immediately.

"Look, there aren't any Risen in these parts, we've been through here a million times. I just wanted to talk." Although Inigo was whispering, he could tell Severa was uncomfortable with taking the risk of being found by Risen scouts. She looked about frantically as she walked. She kept quiet for a while, making Inigo unsure of what she could be thinking.

"Talk?" she asked meekly.

Inigo felt the heat rush to his cheeks so fast he had to turn away to make Severa wouldn't see him blush. That had not been the response Inigo expected. A simple dismissal was all he needed, but here she was, intrigued by the idea of idle chat. He composed himself as quickly as he could and looked up again, only to find the girl staring at him, confused. The silence was as it always was, pure and undisturbed, but Inigo found it to be deeper and more enveloping than ever just then. After months of living in fear, relying on his senses to survive, Inigo now found his senses dull and useless, as though the silence was sucking them away. Time passed, what felt like ages but must have been only seconds, before Severa blushed as well.

"Look," said Inigo, finally breaking the silence, "I've been feeling kinda lonely lately, what with none of us really talking to each other. Out here it makes sense, but even at the camp no one seems to want to talk. Even Lucina has kept mostly to herself. Owain is the only person I can talk to, and I don't know how much more of that I can take…"

She let out a soft giggle, like a cat that could not help but purr despite making every effort to stop it. Inigo didn't know what he wanted to achieve through this, but he felt better already to see Severa smile, even if she did everything she could to keep the smile down. The last smile Inigo had seen was his mother's as she kissed him goodbye before she left with Chrom to fight the Fell Dragon's forces. That was almost two years ago.

"Well, alright, but we must whisper, and we keep walking towards the camp. And if we hear anything, stop talking." she said.

"I can do that" he replied.

The only issue was he wasn't sure how to make idle chat with her. It was easy with someone like Owain, who could talk about anything at great length, but Severa was different. He didn't know how to talk to her. Something was stopping him from simply speaking his mind, as he would do with others. Perhaps he wanted to avoid making a fool of himself in front of someone who was so critical in his survival. That must have been it. He couldn't lose the respect of the person he spent most of his time with now.

Through all his thinking, Inigo lost track of time, and the silence had re-established itself. He did not notice this until Severa spoke to him.

"Well," she said "what do we talk about?"

Inigo was stunned. How was it that Severa had spoken first? How was it that she had moved to start the conversation?

"When did you last see your parents?"

Perhaps brought out by his last memory of his own mother, that thought had jumped spontaneously and was blurted out in such a fashion that it seemed almost natural.

"Oh" was all she said.

He couldn't help but feel terrible. Her voice, always so stern and strong, was nothing but a whimper.

"Alright," she added meekly, "I only know I last saw my mother the day Ylisstol fell. She flew to me before going to help the citizens evacuate. She must have known she wouldn't come back, but she said to hold on to her headdress for her, that she didn't want to lose it in battle. I guess she just wanted me to have something to help me remember her…"

The headdress were two small and simple pieces of metal molded into the shape of a feather, and delicately painted white, each attached by a small clip above one of Severa's ears. Although the pieces were small, and had faded somewhat with time, they gave her a subtle angelic appearance.

"I didn't mean to bring up bad memories, I'm sorry. I just couldn't think of anything to say…"

Inigo really did feel bad, worse than he thought he should. He hadn't offended her, yet she wasn't keeping her head held high as usual, and he was sure he had caught a glimpse of a tear rolling down her cheek as he followed her towards the camp.

"It's fine. I think I needed to talk a bit as well. It's getting dark; we should find someplace to camp out for the night."

Within a few minutes of walking, the pair had found a spot they had previously used before as a campsite, a small cavern nestled under a narrow waterfall. It wasn't perfectly hidden by any means, but it was as good a place as any, and the noise the water made easily covered up any sound the campers might make. In silence, the two set up some furs to sleep on and settled down quietly in the little cave. No fire was to be made, so they ate remaining dried meat from the previous day's hunt. Not another was uttered as the two settled into their own corners of the cave and lay down to rest. It was unlikely they would sleep much, but it was better than nothing.

It was sometime in the night when Inigo heard a sound over the gentle rush of water. A sniffle, and ever so delicate, a sob.


	2. Chapter 2

There was no question that Ylisse had become a desolate place, overrun with Risen, zombie-like creatures who may have once been men. No one knew how the Risen had arrived in Ylisse, they just simply appeared when the Fell Dragon decided to mount his offensive. The black creatures resembled men, but were maimed and twisted, with black rotted flesh visible through their pale skin. Although Lucina made sure her company never lost hope, but hope was becoming harder and harder to cling to as months of darkness went by. Despite the gloomy world around them, and their many losses in the brutal war, Inigo found that the company never really displayed their sadness. He realized that he had not seen anyone cry in ages. He was practically more used to smiles and lighthearted jokes than crying. Seeing Severa cry, and worse, not try to hide her crying, sent a wave of shock through the young soldier. As if possessed, Inigo got up from his corner of the cave, grab all the furs he had used to sleep, and walked to where the red haired girl lay. Without a word, Inigo mechanically placed the furs ever so delicately over Severa, and sat down next to her. She was lying on her side, facing the cavern wall, completely still. She didn't move to acknowledge him for quite a while, which Inigo couldn't complain about. Realizing what he'd just done, he was worried of how she would react. He didn't know why, but he had suddenly started feeling the need to care for her. Seeing the girl cry had upset him more than he wanted to admit to himself.

"I'm sorry" he said after a few minutes had passed as if to justify what he had done.

Still she made no response. For close to an hour Inigo sat next to his scouting partner as she lay curled up under the furs. Realizing how tired he was, Inigo was about to get up to go back to his corner when Severa finally turned over to look at him. She gently rested her head onto his lap, and looked up at him. Inigo could only stare. He looked deep into her hazel eyes, gazing at every speck of color, admiring the shimmer the dim moonlight made through her semi-dried tears.

She lay motionless, uttering not a sound, while she examined his face. Her eyes never met his, and Inigo began to feel uneasy.

"I didn't mean to…" Inigo started.

Lips stopped him from finishing what he was going to say. Severa kissed him so lightly it took him a second to realize what she was doing. Her lips felt like a soft breeze on a summer day, pressing onto Inigo's own lips with only enough strength to stimulate the outer skin. And as suddenly as it had begun, it ended. She pulled back and stared directly into his eyes, not just looking at him, but into him. The boy was flustered. He had been only 14 when the war began, and had never come this close to a girl, though not for lack of trying. As the war carried on in its destructive path, any thoughts of romanticism had started fading. Especially since Lucina had organized her group of Shepards, Inigo hadn't had the chance to consider it. All of his down time was spent with Owain, whose maniacal stories of heroism could take his mind off of reality for a bit.

The poor boy was only halfway back into reality when she kissed him again. She was much more insistent now, as if driven by newfound confidence. As she pressed her face to his, she brought herself up and wrapped herself in his arms. Without hesitation, Inigo returned the embrace, squeezing her tightly and holding the kiss as long as she wanted, without making any further advances. When she pulled back, she laid her head on his shoulder and continued to press her body against his. He had never been this close to anyone in years, and he loved the feeling. Her warmth flowed through him like a warm drink on a cold day. Her arms were wrapped around him, and her fingers dug into his sides as though she was holding on for dear life. He felt something cold on his shoulder and looked to find Severa crying. Not the gentle sobs from earlier, but much more emotional and expressed sobs. It dawned him that she was letting everything out.

Severa was a hard person by nature, she never gave anyone any hint at her feelings and was most often straight forward with people. As the months went by, Inigo started to truly believe that she simply did not feel as strongly as others, but here he was, very much proven wrong. It seemed as though Severa had bottled up all of her sadness to stay strong for the other Shepards, but the memory of her mother on this quiet night had been too much. And now she was going to let a war's worth of sadness out, with Inigo to comfort her.

As she cried, Inigo finally understood why he had felt the need to comfort the red haired girl in the first place. It had been nearly two years now that the pair had been conducting their scouting expeditions together, and he knew that he they shared a bond that was unreplaceable. But he had always assumed that mean that they knew each other's fighting style perfectly, and that each could count on the other to watch his back. That had been proven to be the case many times, as the two got caught in sticky situations with the Risen. But, sitting in the cavern, with the girl crying out her sorrow onto his shoulder, he realized what this bond truly meant: he loved her.


End file.
